1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a portable terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a coupling structure between cases of a housing of the portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, the term “portable terminal” refers to an apparatus which provides radio communication between users and service providers via a mobile communication base station. Various forms of contents such as a voice communication service, a short message service, a mobile banking service, a television (TV) service, an on-line game service, and an on-demand video service are provided to users using portable terminals.
Conventional portable terminals may be classified in various types according to their appearance. For example, portable terminals may be classified as bar-type terminals, flip-type terminals, and folder-type terminals according to their appearance. In a bar-type terminal, input/output devices such as a communication circuit, transmitting unit and receiving unit are mounted in a single housing. In a flip-type terminal, a flip cover is mounted in the bar-type terminal. In a folder-type terminal, a pair of housings are opened and closed through rotation and input/output devices are arranged on the pair of housings. Recently, a sliding-type terminal has been developed to improve portability and convenience and to satisfy various user preferences together with the folder-type terminal.
In consideration of portability, much effort has been made to miniaturize a portable terminal by reducing the length width, and thickness of the portable terminal. Recently, however, a large screen is required to provide a multimedia service using the portable terminal, resulting in limitations in reducing the length or width of the portable terminal. Thus, efforts to miniaturize the portable terminal have been concentrated on making the portable terminal slim by reducing the thickness of the portable terminal.
In a slim terminal, a problem may occur in securing battery capacity. In other words, the batter capacity may be limited due to a limitation in securing the volume of a battery pack.
Moreover, a conventional portable terminal is manufactured such that a battery pack including a rechargeable battery is mounted in the terminal after being accommodated in a separate housing or the battery pack is accommodated in a housing of the terminal and then protected by a cover member. Such a battery pack mounting structure requires much space on the housing of the terminal to secure its coupling means. In particular, when the battery pack is accommodated in the separate housing, its coupling means must be sufficiently solid to resist the load of the housing and the battery pack, thus requiring more space.
As a result, the coupling means provided for mounting the battery pack in the slim structure hinders the battery capacity from being secured. Moreover, since the load of the battery pack constitutes a significant proportion of the entire load of the slim terminal, the terminal is likely to be damaged such as the shape transformation of the terminal by an external shock.